By Daily Sports on June 11, 2019

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Laid bare for all to see via international TV station Super Sports. The live game of the ongoing Super Six play off to determine winners of the Nigerian top flight league between Kano Pillars and Rangers International of Enugu at the Agege Stadium, Lagos on Monday evening exposed in shameful encapsulation before the eyes of the international most of the ills of the Nigerian domestic league.

Talk about ugly football,and for most of the game it was a bore fest of ball hoofing, comical errors of miskicks and utter out-of-depth ball controls and a glaring lack of intelligent tactical plans to guarantee an interesting route to scoring goals and pleasing fans with intricate passing moves.

Though both sides were largely guilty of porous play for a large part of the contest, Kano Pillars were marginally the better side and deservedly shot into the lead with a super strike from captain Rabiu Ali.

The Pyramid Boys continued to press and looked a sure bet to earn a penalty when their player was clearly being pulled down in the box by a Rangers defender. There was a case for the referee to have allowed an advantage play with another Pillars player looking poised to score. But what followed seconds later was a sad reminder of the incosistency in officiating that has blighted the local ga for just too long. 

Another Pillars forward took a clear goal-bound shot that met the outstretched hand of Akpos the Rangers defender. That should have been a clear penalty but it was not given, to the chagrin of the Pillars players and supporters at the stadium.

 A few minutes later,with the game coming to an end,the center referee awarded a penalty to Rangers. A Kano Pillars defender was guilty of pushing an onrushing Rangers striker and by th latter of the laws of football,it was a deserved penalty.

However,if that was a penalty,then Pillars appeal for a penalty was just. They should have been given as well.

Rangers scored from the spot and immediately the referee signalled for the end of the game,the biggest ugly incidents took place.

Kano Pillars players failed to keep their anger in check as they rushed to the referee,pushing and shoving him in a show of shame.

Their fans who had, even before the end of the game, been throwing dangerous objects into the pitch in protest of the penalty awarded against them, rushed into the pitch and it was mayhem. The referee took to his heels,chased by the irate fans of Kano Pillars who were hurling stones,sticks,planks and all at him as they chased. 

The state box was bombarded as well by the irate fans. If Pillars fans could behave like this in Lagos,you can best imagine what would have happened if the match had held in Kano.

Where and how was the security arrangement for the game,in tje face of the breakdown of law and order? Zilch.

The few policemen on hand were simply overwhelmed. 

A particular Pillars fan who had been hurling dangerous objects unto the pitch m, instead of being isolated and arrested, was being appealed to for calm.

When the mob of Pillars fans rushed into the pitch, the policemen were helpless and they were at the mercy of the Pillars fans who could have even turned against them in mad rage.

The Super Sports cameras went off at this point and how the situation was brought under control was a mystery.

But those who were watching, both within and outside Nigeria had seen enough to understand why our local league is still backwards. 

Will the shame of Agege usher in a moment of serious introspection by those powers that be who are in charge of running he league? Would it spur them to seriously start introduce and implement real standard practices that would make the Nigerian local league much better and modern? Time will tell.

Source Daily Sports

Posted June 11, 2019

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